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Aylinn



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 6:33 am Reply with quote
Unicorn_Blade wrote:
Another thing I just thought of- it seems to be implied that spoiler[Seishirou was bitten by Natsuno and therefore listened to his commands. But, is it not said that they would be listrning to the first one they were bitten by, which in this case would be Sunako, I suppose? Can Natsuno's bite 'override' Sunako's?]

I think, yes. It was heavily implied that Toshio’s second bite was made by Natsuno and it freed Toshio from Chizuru’s control. However, I doubt that Seishirou has ever been bitten by Sunako. Tatsumi said that Seishirou was the first human who accepted Sunako, so I don’t think biting him was necessary.
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Unicorn_Blade



Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1153
Location: UK
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 6:54 am Reply with quote
Aylinn wrote:
Unicorn_Blade wrote:
Another thing I just thought of- it seems to be implied that spoiler[Seishirou was bitten by Natsuno and therefore listened to his commands. But, is it not said that they would be listrning to the first one they were bitten by, which in this case would be Sunako, I suppose? Can Natsuno's bite 'override' Sunako's?]

I think, yes. It was heavily implied that Toshio’s second bite was made by Natsuno and it freed Toshio from Chizuru’s control. However, I doubt that Seishirou has ever been bitten by Sunako. Tatsumi said that Seishirou was the first human who accepted Sunako, so I don’t think biting him was necessary.


I actually thought that chronologically Natsuno was the first to bite him, thus making himself the fist person who would make Toshio obedient to himself. Therefore, Chizuru's bite did not matter- maybe they made it more explicit in the manga, I cant remember where I have seen it.

I was a bit confused what Seishirou actually was (pays off for not paying attention to little details)- spoiler[I thought he was a jinrou, therefore he needed to have been bitten. I just realised that he was a actually human. Although he did say he wanted to become a shiki eventually, I wonder how would he go on around this one, with no certainty he would rise. Another reason why I thought he was aa jinrou is because, thinking of it now, his only skill involved shooting. Quite a useless skill when it camr to fighting Natsuno, as it turns out. And the only reason it worked against the girl seems to be that she was too surprised to act.
]

I also did not really understand what his father was either- Mr. Kirishiki said he used to tear people appart. So whatever he did for living, I think that explains why Kirishiki decided to join the vampires and was attracted by all the violence.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24079
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 7:45 am Reply with quote
Okay, Junior Monk is really pissing me off. spoiler[Sure, take Sunako back to the temple and put your family in danger, you putz]. Excellent call.

Humans are definitely out of control. They've gone from killing "collaborators" who are under the shiki hypnosis to killing any human they think is helping them at all, even without any evidence of hypnosis.

My guess is that Sunako will ultimately survive and perpetuate the shiki plague. It would be kind of a interesting twist if somehow Natsuno becomes her jin-rou and takes over from Disco Dan (Tatsumi - who actually was dressed relatively normally in eppie 21).

Kinda bummed out there is only one episode left, but also sort of anxious to see the story wrapped up, too. Shiki is definitely my top pick of the 2010 season.
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Ggultra2764
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Joined: 21 Jan 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 11:01 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I actually thought that chronologically Natsuno was the first to bite him, thus making himself the fist person who would make Toshio obedient to himself. Therefore, Chizuru's bite did not matter- maybe they made it more explicit in the manga, I can't remember where I have seen it.


For the manga, spoiler[Natsuno did indeed bite Toshio to prevent him from being affected by any of the other vampires]. As a matter of fact, it looks like the anime switches the order of particular events that occurred in the manga and even left out some key details regarding the vampires or any of the villagers. For example, spoiler[the grandpa of the junior monk seen during the middle of the hideaway slaughter desired to be a vampire in the manga because his health condition rendered him paralyzed from the neck down. Unfortunately, turning vampire doesn't heal you of any inflictions you had before being turned.]
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EmbraceMe



Joined: 17 Dec 2010
Posts: 2017
Location: Growing old and jaded.
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 11:09 am Reply with quote
Oh, thanks for clearing the "killing vampire" thing, I wasn't too sure of how it really work. It was just my perception of what could have been a "better" method to end the Okiagari's lives.

I plan to re-watch the whole series for better understanding of everything.

Anyways, it did bother me a bit how casual the people were in the beginning. "Here throw the bodies out. Oh this is still alive. I'll do it!"

I also have a feeling that Natsuno might join the Okiagaris, but wouldn't that contradict his decision to kill all the Okiagaris. Still, he had a conversation with Tatsumi in sound episode. And he said he didn't plan on taking sides.

I'm also planning to read the manga, since the anime was base off it.
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~~EpiC~~



Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 11:47 am Reply with quote
Did everyone really like this episode? It was terrible. I thought it was extremely contrived. So contrived I feel the need to post about it. Everything felt like a plot device and on a few occasions, damn close to a deux ex. It radically dismantled the unending love I had for this series just an episode ago. I had been waiting for these last few episodes, because I knew it would make or break the series for me. It has broken it.

Okay, I guess I'll start with what I did like. The sense of dread you get at the beginning of the episode before the opening theme was amazing.
They were burying bodies and killing with no qualms, no regret. Hell, they were doing it like they were helping kids in Africa, like they were hanging out with friends at the mall. Very disturbing. The humans have officially become much worse than the Shiki. Much worse. Excellent job there. This series has had some of the best (or should I say worse?) horrifying moments in anime history, imo.

Now for what I hated.

spoiler[When Toru released the girl that told the humans where the Shiki were hiding. Somehow she survives an onslaught from like 6 wild dogs?] What? Bullshit.
After surviving that onslaught,spoiler[ she goes back and tells the village where the okiagari were. They JUST freed your ass when they weren't supposed to and by all means should have eaten you?] I felt like that was a terrible betrayal. Okay, okay, you could argue that it might, might have made sense psychologically to betray your home-girl, so I'll let that one slide.

But then, what is with all this ridiculous remembering important details randomly for no apparent reason other than to move the plot along crap? You guys did that earlier and I let it slide, because people do sometimes do that (though rarely for extremely important moments, let alone extremely obvious details).

spoiler[So you randomly remember there is a secret underground basement in the castle?] No way. That's ridiculous. How could you possible forget something so important until this very moment. What a terrible plot device. That was clunky and immature storytelling at its finest.

And to make matters worse. All of the Shiki deaths and problems were highly chance. spoiler[Okay, so Seishirou just somehow happened to be sitting right where the Jinrou girl was going to move next?] Rolling Eyes

spoiler[And the Monk Boy just HAPPENED, to drive through a forest, to run into a road at the exact same time the Doctor was driving away?] WHAT? Seriously? Continue the fledgling storytelling please.

And why the heck are you guys waiting tospoiler[ leave the castle anyway. Your resistance was so terrible to the point that it was nonsensical. They should have been left with Sunako.]

And why is the Shiki resistance so weak? They are obviously stronger, faster, and quicker. You have personal ties that you could manipulate; the same personal ties you used to hamper victims at the end. And no matter how I look at it, most of those villagers (with the exception of a people, like the Big Guy and the Doctor) should still be susceptible (at least they would be if they are real human characters and not just being used as a plot device) to some of your damage.

Why didn'tspoiler[ Seishirou shoot the Doctor] two episodes earlier? He should have been dead. He's not wearing armor or anything of like, hell he's been standing in the open.

And no, I'm not buying anymore of Sunako's angst. Yes, I understand her angst and I even sympathize with it. But now Sagacious I agree with you now. She is being retarded. She is spoiler[hundreds of years] old. The experiences she should have gathered should make her nearly unstoppable. No matter where she stopped developing at, the human brain is powerful. There are children with IQs that are extremely high, the only thing stopping them is experience. Anyway, why is she angsting over a situation that she implied she hadspoiler[ been through before.] ? It's baffling when you really think about it.

And what the hell has Wolf Boy been doing this far? He's been drinking from thespoiler[ Monk] every night making him so weak he could hardly protect anyone, and it doesn't seem like you have done a thing. Silly. Rolling Eyes



Anyway I can't count the number of times I face-palmed or rolled my eyes during this episode. I'm really hoping this last episode somehow saves the series. Not sure it can anymore though. [/spoiler]
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Unicorn_Blade



Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1153
Location: UK
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:43 pm Reply with quote
Ggultra2764 wrote:
Quote:
I actually thought that chronologically Natsuno was the first to bite him, thus making himself the fist person who would make Toshio obedient to himself. Therefore, Chizuru's bite did not matter- maybe they made it more explicit in the manga, I can't remember where I have seen it.


For the manga, spoiler[Natsuno did indeed bite Toshio to prevent him from being affected by any of the other vampires]. As a matter of fact, it looks like the anime switches the order of particular events that occurred in the manga and even left out some key details regarding the vampires or any of the villagers. For example, spoiler[the grandpa of the junior monk seen during the middle of the hideaway slaughter desired to be a vampire in the manga because his health condition rendered him paralyzed from the neck down. Unfortunately, turning vampire doesn't heal you of any inflictions you had before being turned.]


Yeah, I completely forgot about that- I was sure they showed it in the anime, but not necessarily. There is a few other things that the anime did not follow, like the episode with the girl who was hiding her okiagari-mother in the house, spoiler[and the friend who gave them away- it was foreshadowed, but they never got round to come back to it.] Shame, I really loved that episode in the manga.

~~EpiC~~ wrote:



spoiler[When Toru released the girl that told the humans where the Shiki were hiding. Somehow she survives an onslaught from like 6 wild dogs?]

But then, what is with all this ridiculous remembering important details randomly for no apparent reason other than to move the plot along crap? You guys did that earlier and I let it slide, because people do sometimes do that (though rarely for extremely important moments, let alone extremely obvious details).

spoiler[So you randomly remember there is a secret underground basement in the castle?] No way. That's ridiculous. How could you possible forget something so important until this very moment. What a terrible plot device. That was clunky and immature storytelling at its finest.


And why is the Shiki resistance so weak? They are obviously stronger, faster, and quicker. You have personal ties that you could manipulate; the same personal ties you used to hamper victims at the end.

Why didn'tspoiler[ Seishirou shoot the Doctor] two episodes earlier? He should have been dead. He's not wearing armor or anything of like, hell he's been standing in the open.



And what the hell has Wolf Boy been doing this far? He's been drinking from thespoiler[ Monk] every night making him so weak he could hardly protect anyone, and it doesn't seem like you have done a thing. Silly. Rolling Eyes




They did not just randomly remember about the secret cellar- as a matter of fact they never said: Oh, btw, there is a secret cellar in the castle. What they did say, is that going through the whole thing again and again, they someone remembered that there were trucks removing a lot of ground before the Kirishikis moved in, which might mean that there is a secret room in the basement. It is not a kind of detail that comes to your mind first of all.

Seishirou did not shoot the doctor earlier, because Natsuno got in the way.

I think that the resistance was quite weak since once Seishirou and his wife were gone, and since their population was made up of a lot of weak ones, they were quite easy to harm and difficult to organise. A lot of them panicked. A lot of them had no idea what to do with their leaders gone. A lot of them became easy targets since they considered themselves invincible, and that turned out not to be so very true. Look at the irritating teen who used to follow Megumi- he was a okiagari for quite a while, and so what, no fighting skills or guts or whatsoever. And a lot of shiki were like this. Would you give them a few months, maybe they would be harder to face.

I also thought that a few things were a bit left out- I expected Tatsumi to accomplish something extraordinary, specially after feeding on the monk, and spoiler[ yet no, never happened], unless he saves the best for last.
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darkhappy1



Joined: 26 Jan 2009
Posts: 495
Location: PA
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:58 pm Reply with quote
This episode was just as suspenseful as the past few episodes, which isn't surprising at all. I think I cringed at quite a few scenes, which is a good thing.

~~EpiC~~ wrote:
spoiler[When Toru released the girl that told the humans where the Shiki were hiding. Somehow she survives an onslaught from like 6 wild dogs?] What? Bullshit.
After surviving that onslaught,spoiler[ she goes back and tells the village where the okiagari were. They JUST freed your ass when they weren't supposed to and by all means should have eaten you?] I felt like that was a terrible betrayal. Okay, okay, you could argue that it might, might have made sense psychologically to betray your home-girl, so I'll let that one slide.


spoiler[Yeah... I cringed at that dog scene, and her survival cheapened it. In fact, that scene was rendered unnecessary.] Anyway, it's not like Toru freed her because he wanted to, but because of Ritsuko. The nurse would still expect all other Shiki to be murderous.

~~EpiC~~ wrote:
But then, what is with all this ridiculous remembering important details randomly for no apparent reason other than to move the plot along crap? You guys did that earlier and I let it slide, because people do sometimes do that (though rarely for extremely important moments, let alone extremely obvious details).

spoiler[So you randomly remember there is a secret underground basement in the castle?] No way. That's ridiculous. How could you possible forget something so important until this very moment. What a terrible plot device. That was clunky and immature storytelling at its finest.


Actually, all they knew was that there were trucks carrying dirt, and that bit of information would have understandably been overlooked because of all of the other activity and moving trucks. So while it would've been easy to deduce why there were trucks carrying dirt, figuring out past events that did not affect the village itself would not have been on the minds of murderous and vengeful villagers.

~~EpiC~~ wrote:
And to make matters worse. All of the Shiki deaths and problems were highly chance. spoiler[Okay, so Seishirou just somehow happened to be sitting right where the Jinrou girl was going to move next?] Rolling Eyes


He was waiting there the whole time. The girl was running all around the village. They were bound to meet at some point. spoiler[I agree with you on Seishin running into Toshio being a bit too coincidental though.]

~~EpiC~~ wrote:
And why is the Shiki resistance so weak? They are obviously stronger, faster, and quicker. You have personal ties that you could manipulate; the same personal ties you used to hamper victims at the end. And no matter how I look at it, most of those villagers (with the exception of a people, like the Big Guy and the Doctor) should still be susceptible (at least they would be if they are real human characters and not just being used as a plot device) to some of your damage.


Most Shiki can only act during the night. Villagers aren't letting people in and are just being more prepared, so manipulating personal ties is an incredibly risky move now spoiler[(that hasn't worked for either Masao or Kaori's Dad)]. I'm assuming that there are those that are on the offensive, while the others are just trying to escape and rest in "safe" places. Laughing

~~EpiC~~ wrote:
And no, I'm not buying anymore of Sunako's angst. Yes, I understand her angst and I even sympathize with it. But now Sagacious I agree with you now. She is being retarded. She is spoiler[hundreds of years] old. The experiences she should have gathered should make her nearly unstoppable. No matter where she stopped developing at, the human brain is powerful. There are children with IQs that are extremely high, the only thing stopping them is experience. Anyway, why is she angsting over a situation that she implied she hadspoiler[ been through before.] ? It's baffling when you really think about it.[/spoiler]


Possibly because she's now losing people close to her, like Chizuru. I would assume that past attempts were like this: "Move in. Slowly kill people. Gather Shiki. Kill everyone off more quickly. Fail at the last step. Run with the Merry Kirishiki Family and Co." And now her brain is more scrambled up than before because that last step isn't all that good anymore.

~~EpiC~~ wrote:
And what the hell has Wolf Boy been doing this far? He's been drinking from thespoiler[ Monk] every night making him so weak he could hardly protect anyone, and it doesn't seem like you have done a thing. Silly. Rolling Eyes


I'd assume he was doing what Wolf Girl was doing. spoiler[I don't think he should have had Seishin carry off Sunako though, since Seishin's pretty weak. Then again, using Seishin as bait instead of himself might have made Sunako sad... Well, sadder.... Well, she'd just be sad all the time.] Anime catgrin + sweatdrop

EDIT: Oh whoops Unicorn_Blade replied. Alrighty then.
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~~EpiC~~



Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 2:14 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
unicorn blade

They did not just randomly remember about the secret cellar- as a matter of fact they never said: Oh, btw, there is a secret cellar in the castle. What they did say, is that going through the whole thing again and again, they someone remembered that there were trucks removing a lot of ground before the Kirishikis moved in, which might mean that there is a secret room in the basement. It is not a kind of detail that comes to your mind first of all.


Are you guys really defending this portion?
Umm... that's exactly what randomly remembering is. He randomly remembered there were some trucks removing ground at the Castle. There wasn't even a stimulus that would trigger the event psychologically (like trucks or being near the house). All the details that were said before were already said two episodes earlier. I just re-watched that entire section to make sure of it.

And how unprobable, and downright stupid is it to overlook the idea of a secret cellar? I mean, where else are the okiagari's going to hide during the daytime? It's a castle, isn't that obvious? They even mentioned checking every other secret compartment in the house episode or so earlier. To me, this is a glaring omission, and I can't for the life of me figure out how someone with the brains of the doctor and with the brains of the entire village would not think this through. And the one guy remembers just right there all of a sudden? If the doctor wasn't portrayed as an extremely intelligent and plotting man, I might agree with it. And their is no reason story wise to turn him into an idiot who misses large details. (he surely tested every small little thing on his wife)

The first thing I would've done was sit down and think about all the secret possible places in a castle. It's too unbelievable to figure it out randomly, and they only did it to move the plot along. A plot device at its finest.

Quote:
darkhappy1
He was waiting there the whole time. The girl was running all around the village. They were bound to meet at some point.


Was she really running around the entire village though? I don't know if that's true, but I'll agree that its possible. Though, I find it slightly odd that she would take to the roofs to jump on their victims, but then just run around the village. Why wouldn't they stay on the roofs?


Quote:
unicorn blade

I think that the resistance was quite weak since once Seishirou and his wife were gone, and since their population was made up of a lot of weak ones, they were quite easy to harm and difficult to organise. A lot of them panicked. A lot of them had no idea what to do with their leaders gone. A lot of them became easy targets since they considered themselves invincible, and that turned out not to be so very true. Look at the irritating teen who used to follow Megumi- he was a okiagari for quite a while, and so what, no fighting skills or guts or whatsoever. And a lot of shiki were like this. Would you give them a few months, maybe they would be harder to face.


Okay, I might be able to accept this. But the idea of the Shiki being overconfident and not coming up with a plan B is strange in the first place. Apparently, they have failed many times before at this step. It's absurd to even think that you would win without two or three backup plans, if you really think about it.


Quote:
darkhappy1
Seishirou did not shoot the doctor earlier, because Natsuno got in the way.


What kind of a master marksman/assassin does not wait to kill the Doctor, the leader, first and foremost? I mean, he has a sniper, it was implied that he was up their for a while. People can assassinate presidents that have 100000 times more protection, but not a doctor? Horribly unlikely. If I recall correctly, and maybe I'm not remembering the situation right, but he sniped some random guy first. You ALWAYS shoot at the key target first and then spread from there. Otherwise you are a waste of a human being. Please tell me if I'm wrong here.


Quote:
darkhappy1
Possibly because she's now losing people close to her, like Chizuru. I would assume that past attempts were like this: "Move in. Slowly kill people. Gather Shiki. Kill everyone off more quickly. Fail at the last step. Run with the Merry Kirishiki Family and Co." And now her brain is more scrambled up than before because that last step isn't all that good anymore.


I could be wrong here to, so correct me if I am, but didn't she mention that she did not want to leave the village and run away again? If so, why wouldn't she come up with some interesting plan to stop this?


Anyway, I appreciate the replies, I am trying to make sense of this convoluted situation. I must do spiritual unification, chi and... lol


Oh I almost forgot to ask. Did they ever explain why they left the Doctor alive in the first place and not kill him? I understand the Junior Monk, that makes perfect sense.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 2:30 pm Reply with quote
Master marksman? Heck of a hyperbole, no? Did he ever mention he was a master marksman? Did you get a Golgo 13 vibe from him or something?

You seem to mention the doctor's intelligence, yet you don't mention the extremely low amount of sleep he has gotten the past few days/weeks, which could easily cause him to make a few missteps in his leadership. At least, I don't know about you, but when I'm really tired I cannot use my brain to the best of my ability.

And yeah, I can honestly believe that about the castle. Because he remembered it as soon as someone else mentioned the Kanemasa castle, meaning he was probably going through in his head any possible rooms that went unchecked as well as any information he could remember about it. I also remember stuff out of the blue all the time. It's not a strange phenomenon whatsoever in my opinion.

Also, who said she wasn't going to get on the roof of the next building? She encountered brainwashed-Seishirou right after she split up with the two other shiki after all.

Odds are Natsuno didn't plan on a jinrou just wandering by, but rather for Sunako to call on the jinrou in a search for Seishirou (since it's pretty obvious that she harbors some affection towards him), but hey, it happened. Not too hard to believe in a small village like that.
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~~EpiC~~



Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 7:00 pm Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
Master marksman? Heck of a hyperbole, no? Did he ever mention he was a master marksman? Did you get a Golgo 13 vibe from him or something?


I don't even understand this. When do you have to mention someone is something for it to be true? I could have sworn 'show don't tell' was the accepting norm.. Anyway, that's besides the point, they showed many times throughout the show how adept Seishirou was with a rifle. Do you see the old school rifle he uses? You can not be that good with the weapon and not be a master marksman. I'm not saying the man was god with a rifle, but he was damn sure great.

Quote:
You seem to mention the doctor's intelligence, yet you don't mention the extremely low amount of sleep he has gotten the past few days/weeks, which could easily cause him to make a few missteps in his leadership. At least, I don't know about you, but when I'm really tired I cannot use my brain to the best of my ability.


I see what you are saying here. Though I don't appreciate you using hyperbole after chastising me for using it. Besides the bags under his eyes, the show never shows exactly how much sleep he's been getting as of late. While I will grant you that on average it was probably low, he sure has been able to do some pretty remarkable things beforehand under the same conditions. It's been like that from the very beginning. In fact, you could probably argue that he got less sleep earlier in the narrative than later. But for some reason, it just starts to show in the last two episodes? Please, that's not how that works. Part of being a doctor is knowing there will be many sleepless nights to come anyway.

That being said most of his leadership problems came from his inactivity, not his activity. And if that is what they wanted to show the audience, they did a terrible job of it.


Quote:
And yeah, I can honestly believe that about the castle. Because he remembered it as soon as someone else mentioned the Kanemasa castle, meaning he was probably going through in his head any possible rooms that went unchecked as well as any information he could remember about it. I also remember stuff out of the blue all the time. It's not a strange phenomenon whatsoever in my opinion.


Yes, I agree, remembering things out of the blue is not strange. But in certain situations, for certain things, it is. First of all, the moving into Kanemasa castle was fairly recent (same year or so, I believe). This wasn't an event that happened five plus years back. Then I might see your point. You say he remembered it when someone else mentioned the Kanemasa castle. They have been talking about the same thing for days. The same exact thing. They mentioned Kanemasa castle plenty of times earlier, with trucks around and lots of dirt. They even discussed for a while what secret spots could the Shiki be hiding an episode or two ago.

I still don't understand how people don't see the obvious plot device. Scratch that, I do understand. I know if I did not want to believe something badly enough I'd pretend it wasn't there too. I have done the same thing before. If that was set up two episodes ago, it would have been fine. But look what happened, like, directly afterward. The Monk has to escape with Sunako in an obviously rushed scene to move the plot along to end it on time. Because I have a lot of faith in this show, I'm going to assume they are saving the last 22 minutes for something so epic that they had to rush this episode.


Quote:
Also, who said she wasn't going to get on the roof of the next building? She encountered brainwashed-Seishirou right after she split up with the two other shiki after all.


Really? If you have no common sense and are severely lacking in the IQ department, sure.


Quote:
Odds are Natsuno didn't plan on a jinrou just wandering by, but rather for Sunako to call on the jinrou in a search for Seishirou (since it's pretty obvious that she harbors some affection towards him), but hey, it happened. Not too hard to believe in a small village like that.


Sure, I can see what you are saying here. Like I said twice beforehand, I'll agree that this was possible.


Look, I like this show. A lot. It does a lot of things well, such as the sense of dread, the horror, etc... I have very little to complain about concerning all the episodes before the Reversal arc started. In fact, I loved the slow deliberate pace which I think made the Reversal much more satisfying and interesting overall. But that doesn't change the fact that there has been some shoddy writing showing up in the last few episodes. All of which I was almost sure they would have explained or fixed with the last two episodes. They haven't. A lot of the last episode was rushed and their were some pretty unsatisfying endings to many of the characters. Of course, when I regarded the series so highly, I'm going to put off by the rush job hacked on the ending.
I'm not one of those people who blindly follow a show and pretend its flaws don't exist when others bring them up.
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Unicorn_Blade



Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1153
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:50 am Reply with quote
~~EpiC~~ wrote:



And their is no reason story wise to turn him into an idiot who misses large details. (he surely tested every small little thing on his wife)

The first thing I would've done was sit down and think about all the secret possible places in a castle. It's too unbelievable to figure it out randomly, and they only did it to move the plot along. A plot device at its finest.


They did that, but did not come up with anything. And probably they were all around basements of the house anyways- it's just they did not come up with the idea there might be secret rooms hidden underneath. The castle was quite a big place, and going through it must have been a task daunting enough without looking for secret rooms that might not even exist in first place.



Quote:
Okay, I might be able to accept this. But the idea of the Shiki being overconfident and not coming up with a plan B is strange in the first place. Apparently, they have failed many times before at this step. It's absurd to even think that you would win without two or three backup plans, if you really think about it.


I dont think it was ever explicitly said that they have started a mission like this, on this kind of scale, before. Sure, Sunako, the Kirishikis and the two jinrous might have been trying to settle somewhere, but this was actually the very first time they started up sometihng so big. So they did not have an experience in creating a vampire oasis in the middle of nowhere. And they probably had a plan B, but seeing how it all went smoothly, they decided it was safe enough. It is not uncommon to let your guard down once oyu think you have won the game. See the young vampires who attacked the old man on the street in one of the previous episodes- they were so very overconfident that the village belongs to them. And then they were gone within seconds. If it happens all of a sudden, well, this is not something you can prepare yourself easily for. besides, I also think that is Seishirou was there, things would have been different- Sunako depended heavily on him and himself removing the doctor, which as we know did not happen.


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What kind of a master marksman/assassin does not wait to kill the Doctor, the leader, first and foremost? I mean, he has a sniper, it was implied that he was up their for a while.


I think all that it implied is that he was a goot marksman, and the only one to use is rifle in the village. Nothing more. Besides, he would aimed and would have shot the doctor if the old guy did not place himself in the way the very last second. (OK, that might have happened in the manga only, now I confuse the anime and the manga a bit, come to think of this, the anime did not follow the manga to the letter), and then Natsuno got in the way and there was no way he could have given it a second chance.



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Oh I almost forgot to ask. Did they ever explain why they left the Doctor alive in the first place and not kill him? I understand the Junior Monk, that makes perfect sense.


First they wanted him to join them. Then, for pure cruelty. I guess they thought it was fun to have another person who was aware of everything, and could not do anything about it like playing cat and mouse. I think Chizuru even told the doctor that she would eventually kill him, and I think it gave her more pelasure to 'torture' him with the thought he would eventually die, but not before seeing the whole village in the hands of the shikis. Oh well, what a shame it backfired on her. [/quote]
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~~EpiC~~



Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 3:58 pm Reply with quote
Thoughts on the final episode:


Really enjoyed the ending episode. It repaired some of the damage I felt the last two did. Kind of. Sorta. I still have some hate, though. But my hate shows my love. So it's okay. As does the size of this post. Wink

Well let me put this at the top in case people get bored halfway through and miss it at the bottom.

I absolutely loved the spoiler[ fire ]. It completely caught me off guard. It added a wonderful spoiler[nobody wins ] element to the show that I was hoping they would have, but kind of gave up hope that they would. Sweet.

But why did it happen? Did they say? I missed that. Ehh, if it didn't, it was awesome enough for a 'nature did it!' explanation.

And what religion was the Junior Monk again? I thought I knew, but I'm not sure anymore. This could cause a major plot hole, but I rather someone confirm it before I start an impossible wild goose chase.

Well first things first, Tatsumi showed how resilient he was in this episode. Really strange that they forgot spoiler[ to stake the guy though. I mean, you have staked every other single vampire no matter what horrible things you've done to them, but not this one?] Would of been believable two episodes ago, but at the very end? Suspect.

Regardless his showdown with spoiler[Natsuno] was really satisfying especially when spoiler[Natsuno said he wasn't doing it for anyone. He just did it because he didn't like the Shiki. It really went along with his character, and it was badass enough for me to overlook the fail in their fight. The random TNT was so random that I said "Really?" out loud.] Wouldn't have been such a glaring plot device if they foreshadowed it a couple of episodes earlier. Or did they and I missed it?

On to Megumi. I completely forgot about her. It surprised me when she popped back on screen. Very mixed reactions for me. I thought some of her dialogue was friggin' excellent; it was right on target personalty wise. Excellent.

But, for every good thing there was something suspect.
spoiler[ The Natsuno-esque shadow appearing and prohibiting her escape] was another "Really?" moment for me. A cop-out, but I have no choice to accept it since she was a fairly unstable child and it was kinda-sorta believable? I guess? Well whatever.
What I really had a problem with is the extremely selective and eclectic behavioral patterns of the villagers.

So now you guys have some pause? Youspoiler[ killed] a bunch of other villagers you knew over the last few episodes (it is a small village after all, everyone knows everyone). This is the kind of thing I ranted about for the last episode. You selectively have a psychological pause when the show deems it appropriate, regardless of how inconsistent it is? Well, whatever.

Oh and Megumi spoiler[ randomly doesn't notice a bunch of cars coming after her when she was trying to escape? ] How the hell do you miss them? spoiler[ And aren't Shiki supposed to be decently faster and stronger than humans? It should not be that difficult to outrun] a bunch of bumpkins with farm tools. I've been a huge Megumi fan for a while, so of course I wish spoiler[ she would have survived. ] And of course, I think it would be more interesting if she would have, too. But I'm clearly biased.

The show has been really inconsistent with the relative power levels of the Shiki compared to the humans to the point where it does not make much sense.


The Doctor has been one of the most pleasing characters to watch in recent memory. Does he keep his cool or what? And the spoiler[one time he slightly loses it when he was cutting down the tree] was one of the best scenes in the episode. It was not overdone, and was extremely believable based on the character.

Excellent, but it definitely proved some of his inconsistencies. People here on the boards mentioned that his tiredness throughout the last few episodes supports some of his character inconsistencies in said episodes. Clearly that supposition was incorrect. He certainly proved how sound his mind was and how sound his body was in this episode.

And of course, let us not forget the Sunako portion of the story with the Junior Monk.

I was kind of like spoiler[ wait, how the heck did he become a Jinrou so fast], but I think Tatsumi explained it. I don't remember it taking that long for spoiler[ Natsuno to rise up. ] I think.

Again a few inconsistencies between the power difference of the humans and Shiki, but whatever. I guess I should say that this may not necessarily apply to her, before anyone brings it up. Ehh, who am I kidding. It was just inconsistent. Could have cleaved an entire minute of her portion and rearranged it to strengthen other areas. But the same could be said about almost everything else, too.

Anyway, I enjoyed the closing dialogues, and really appreciate how they left it open ended enough for a possible second season. One that concentrates on the Shiki could be very interesting. There are a lot of places they could go with it that hasn't really been explored in anime as of yet.

Overall, I really want to rate it Excellent, but I might end with Very Good. I really wanted this show to be a masterpiece, but it slipped up at some important moments and had slight inconsistencies here and there. Regardless of how many flaws I could point out, it's been a blast all the way through, and I never lost interest in it. The pacing never upset me (at least not until the final episodes, that is).

It is definitely my favorite show of the season (or last season, depending on how you look at it) and one of my favorite shows this year. A must see for people interested in horror and suspense. Some of the best I've seen in anime. You know what, the sense of dread might garner it that Excellent rating anyway...


Last edited by ~~EpiC~~ on Thu Dec 30, 2010 6:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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mcm38



Joined: 29 Dec 2010
Posts: 2
Location: belgium
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:12 pm Reply with quote
The best way to watch it in my opinion the way I did it:
-Nobody at home when watching
-At midnight
-In your room with the window open, but a curtain in front of it so you can't see what's outside


If you watch it this way I can almost guarantee for everyone, except for the weird ones out there, to get realy thrilling and exiting moments. Especialy the first episodes when Natsuno thinks Zombie Megumi is stalking him again.

Also another thing that get me all hyped up when watching was the fact that I by lucky coincidence happen to live in a house in a small district of a small village encircled by a hill and creepy woods.
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wandering-dreamer



Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 1733
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:24 pm Reply with quote
I actually really liked the ending here because, as EpiC said, the spoiler[nobody wins] ending just seemed to fit the series well (plus, there weren't any characters I really wanted to see live or die and that seems to be that majority of the complaints on the ending).

~~EpiC~~ wrote:
I absolutely loved the spoiler[ fire ]. It completely caught me off guard. It added a wonderful spoiler[nobody wins ] element to the show that I was hoping they would have, but kind of gave up hope that they would. Sweet.

But why did it happen? Did they say? I missed that. Ehh, if it didn't, it was awesome enough for a 'nature did it!' explanation.

I thought it was spoiler[Natsuno's doing since he was at Yamari and the way he said to Tatsumi "who says I sided with the humans?" makes me think that this was a take that at the humans as well, he did really hate that village after all.]
Oh and I think you're referring to Megumi in your post, not Chizuru considering she died a few episodes back at the temple.

@mcm38 I actually made the mistake of watching one of the episodes at my grandparents Civil War era home in the middle of the country close to midnight and then having to climb back to my room in the dark up a creaky set of stairs. I am never doing that again and kudos to all the Japanese who watched this series at the 12 or 1 am airtime, that's pretty gutsy.
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